Posted 4 years ago on Dec. 8, 2012, 6:03 a.m. EST by shadz66
(19985)
This content is user submitted and not an official statement

"BREAK THE GRIP OF CORPORATE POWER TO SECURE OUR FUTURE",

Neoliberal dogma forbids the intervention required to stop climate change. To save the planet we must articulate a new politics.

We cannot restrain climate change without a political fight against plutocracy.

by George Monbiot {The Guardian}

Humankind's greatest crisis coincides with the rise of an ideology that makes it impossible to address. By the late 1980s, when it became clear that man-made climate change endangered the living planet and its people, the world was in the grip of an extreme political doctrine whose tenets forbid the kind of intervention required to arrest it.

Neoliberalism, also known as market fundamentalism or laissez-faire economics, purports to liberate the market from political interference. The state, it asserts, should do little but defend the realm, protect private property and remove barriers to business. In practice it looks nothing like this. What neoliberal theorists call shrinking the state looks more like shrinking democracy: reducing the means by which citizens can restrain the power of the elite. What they call "the market" looks more like the interests of corporations and the ultra-rich. Neoliberalism appears to be little more than a justification for plutocracy.

The doctrine was first applied in Chile in 1973, as former students of the University of Chicago, schooled in Milton Friedman's extreme prescriptions and funded by the CIA, worked alongside General Pinochet to impose a programme that would have been impossible in a democratic state. The result was an economic catastrophe, but one in which the rich – who took over Chile's privatised industries and unprotected natural resources – prospered exceedingly.

The creed was taken up by Margaret Thatcher and Ronald Reagan. It was forced upon the poor world by the IMF and the World Bank. By the time James Hansen presented the first detailed attempt to model future temperature rises to the US Senate in 1988, the doctrine was being implanted everywhere.

As we saw in 2007 and 2008 (when neoliberal governments were forced to abandon their principles to bail out the banks), there could scarcely be a worse set of circumstances for addressing a crisis of any kind. Until it has no choice, the self-hating state will not intervene, however acute the crisis or grave the consequences. Neoliberalism protects the interests of the elite against all-comers.

Preventing climate breakdown – the four, five or six degrees of warming now predicted for this century by green extremists like, er, the World Bank, the International Energy Agency and the accountancy firm, PriceWaterhouseCoopers – means confronting the oil, gas and coal industries. It means forcing those industries to abandon the four-fifths or more of fossil fuel reserves that we cannot afford to burn. It means cancelling the prospecting and development of new reserves – what's the point if we can't use current stocks? – and reversing the expansion of any infrastructure (such as airports) that cannot be run without them.

But the self-hating state cannot act. Captured by interests that democracy is supposed to restrain, it can only sit on the road, ears pricked and whiskers twitching, as the truck thunders towards it. Confrontation is forbidden, action is a mortal sin. You may, perhaps, disperse some money for new energy; you may not legislate against the old.

So Barack Obama pursues what he calls an "all of the above" policy: promoting wind, solar, oil and gas. Ed Davey, the British 'Climate Change' secretary, launched an energy bill in the House of Commons last week whose purpose was to decarbonise the energy supply. In the same debate he also promised that he would "maximise the potential" of oil and gas production in the North Sea and other offshore fields.

Lord Stern described climate change as "the greatest and widest-ranging market failure ever seen". The useless Earth summit in June; the feeble measures now being debated in Doha; the energy bill and electricity-demand-reduction paper launched in Britain last week (better than they might have been, but unmatched to the scale of the problem) – all expose the greatest and widest-ranging failure of market fundamentalism: its incapacity to address our existential crisis.

The 1,000-year legacy of current carbon emissions is long enough to smash anything resembling human civilisation into splinters. Complex societies have sometimes survived the rise and fall of empires, plagues, wars and famines. They won't survive six degrees of climate change, sustained for a millennium. In return for 150 years of explosive consumption, much of which does nothing to advance human welfare, we are atomising the natural world and the human systems that depend on it.

The climate summit (or foothill) in Doha and the sound and fury of the British government's new measures probe the current limits of political action. Go further and you break your covenant with power, a covenant both disguised and validated by the neoliberal creed.

Neoliberalism is not the root of the problem: it is the ideology used, often retrospectively, to justify a global grab of power, public assets and natural resources by an unrestrained elite. But the problem cannot be addressed until the doctrine is challenged by effective political alternatives.

In other words, the struggle against climate change – and all the crises that now beset both human beings and the natural world – cannot be won without a wider political fight: a democratic mobilisation against plutocracy. This should start with an effort to reform campaign finance – the means by which corporations and the very rich buy policies and politicians. Some of us will be launching a petition in the UK in the next few weeks and I hope people will sign it.

But this is scarcely a beginning. We must start to articulate a new politics, one that sees intervention as legitimate, that contains a higher purpose than corporate emancipation disguised as market freedom, that puts the survival of people and the living world above the survival of a few favoured industries. In other words, a politics that belongs to us, not just the super-rich.

117 Comments

"The 1,000-year legacy of current carbon emissions is long enough to smash anything resembling human civilisation into splinters. Complex societies have sometimes survived the rise and fall of empires, plagues, wars and famines. They won't survive six degrees of climate change..."

"...We must start to articulate a new politics, one that sees intervention as legitimate, that contains a higher purpose than corporate emancipation disguised as market freedom, that puts the survival of people and the living world above the survival of a few favoured industries. In other words, a politics that belongs to us, not just the super-rich."

Do millions of people have to die before we wake up, and then, will it be too late?

Hmmm. This is very interesting information. "The CREW report found that 70 percent (or 76) of the 108 three-and-four star generals and Admirals who retired between 2009 and 2011 took jobs with defense contractors or consultants."

I recently saw an episode of House Hunters International and this couple, of whom the husband was a retired army officer, were purchasing a $1 million plus home! I was kind of shocked, to be honest, but it's making more sense now.

But any and all light shed on this matter is still a step towards ... something new, something better and something more just. From the article :

"Creating wars to feed the blood-thirsty and greedy beast of the military industry complex has been a common practice in an allegedly democratic nation. Taxpayers’ have flipped this bill for decades under the guise of self-preservation and protection. As always government has used fear to fashion people’s consent and obedience. Meanwhile, corruption is prevalent, our national debt is skyrocketing, and our parasitic superpower is broke. Parasitic it is, because you can’t become super-rich or super-powerful unless you suck the blood and the life out of someone else. In this case, it is the taxpayers (the proles)."

Wow. What a powerful piece by Hedges as he outlines the thoughts of a revolutionary figure. The truest statement in that piece that exposes almost all of our problems was this:

"...But they don’t know their own history. They don’t understand how they got here. They don’t know what is being done to them. I tell them they have to read and they say, ‘Man, I don’t do books.’ And that is just how the empire wants it. You can’t fight power if you don’t understand it. And you can’t understand it if you don’t experience it and then dissect it.”

Another truth: "It is only by stepping outside the system, by carrying out acts of civil disobedience, by defying both of the major political parties, that we have any hope of resisting the rise of an oligarchic and totalitarian corporate system that will finally enslave us all."

Chris Hedges is on the frontline of the 99% struggle and his ability to succinctly encapsulate the nature of the struggle, is as refreshing as it it is insightful. As the article states : "we must recover our past. We must connect ourselves to the revolutionaries, radicals and prophets who fought injustice before us. We must defy the historical amnesia the corporate state seeks to cement into our consciousness.". As such and also fyi, I append :

"The memo became a rallying cry among corporate executives for how to reassert corporate dominance over the American economy and its government, which it had lost during the era of the New Deal. The memo openly stated that corporations should punish their political enemies and should seek political power through both the law and politics. It encouraged challenges to what it saw as left-wing activities..."

Geesh, we know this all to be true but when you read the steps that were actually taken it really is mind blowing. Thanks for the link and I'll have to catch that documentary.

That we live in a Plutocratic, Kleptocratic, Oligarchic Corpotocracy & that demoCRAZY deMOCKERYcy prevails is clear for all with the rudimentary eyes needed to see, but the cold hard evidence of a decades old coup d'etat is, as you say - still "mind blowing" ! But nothing is inevitable and 'resistance is fertile' !! Finally, I append a link to a pointer towards real and effective solutions for a better tomorrow for all of us:

I agree with Chomsky that we need more organization, education and activism, because we can speed these changes up by doing so. The changes are inevitable because no society marches on with so much failure. People eventually take heed, and systems, both political and economic, adjust to work with the changing times, but we can make it happen sooner so that less people are harmed along the way. The technological change and globalization of the past few decades requires it.

"Please share this article with as many people as you can. Time is running out, and we need to wake up as many people as possible." Thanx for all your doings bw and your heart-centred efforts. Peace & contentment for solstice, yule, new year and beyond to you and yours ... and indeed, us all on this 'bw', our shared and only hommme ~*~

It is urgent that everyone read that article. The statistics there are just unbearable to read and absorb but if Americans don't start doing it, the change that is inevitable will take too long and too much suffering will occur in the meantime.

To effectuate quicker change we must take heed of these truly deleterious facts. Our economic system is an abject failure. The proof is there in those statistics. The good news is, there is enough wealth to go around and their are better ways to do things. It is not too late....yet....

A joyous solstice, yule and new year to you and yours too, and thanks for all you do here.

On this, our shared and only hommme, there is enough on this "bw", for the sustainable needs of 10+ billion of us - at least, but not enough alas for the unsustainable greed of 10 million !!!

Only the hard facts, clearly exposed and properly digested can give rise to the theory and praxis of the 'loverevolution' which we all need. Thanx for your kind words and solidarity here and I also append :

"The US Department of Agriculture predicts a 3-4% food price rise this year – a warning that is seconded in the UK. Make no mistake: on a business-as-usual scenario, this is the new normal."

Right, while wages do nothing. What a joke. And, think, at least in America people can use their credit cards to buy food. If you watch in the supermarket, many do. In other countries, the crisis is more imminent as people need real money to buy food. Which is why "This year, even with prices stabilising, the food price index remains at 210 – which some experts believe is the threshold beyond which civil unrest becomes probable."

To think - at one time long long ago ( wait a sec it wasn't that long ago ) - that people used a credit card for an instant response to an emergency - if they did not have the cash on hand ( liquid in a checking or savings acct. ) - to then be transfered to a regular loan or paid off from savings when accessible on a Monday morning.

DAMN STRAIGHT. We went to school - we did our best - and when we got out of school - we were met by an abusive employer coalition.

[-] 2 points by beautifulworld (12588) 5 minutes ago

The thing that we really need to do is show people how this isn't their fault. A lot of Americans feel like major failures for not being the next millionaire, meanwhile, of course the economy could never support everyone being a millionaire. Americans are not to blame for their poor economic condition, the economic system is to blame and the greedy grubbers who are allowing it to operate the way it is.
↥twinkle ↧stinkle permalink

The thing that we really need to do is show people how this isn't their fault. A lot of Americans feel like major failures for not being the next millionaire, meanwhile, of course the economy could never support everyone being a millionaire. Americans are not to blame for their poor economic condition, the economic system is to blame and the greedy grubbers who are allowing it to operate the way it is.

“The conscious and intelligent manipulation of the organized habits and opinions of the masses is an important element in democratic society. Those who manipulate this unseen mechanism of society constitute an invisible government which is the true ruling power of our country.” by Edward Bernays (Sigmund Freud's nephew) from his seminal booklet, "Propaganda" {here in its entirety} : http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article26193.htm .

"People in Nicosia, Cyprus give their reactions to news the government is imposing a tax on bank savings as part of its bailout deal. Aside from the long-term financial implications, the levy announcement sparked a rush on cash machines, meaning many are unable to withdraw money. The levy – 9.9% on savings over €100,000 and 6.75% on savings below €100,000 - is expected to raise €6bn (£5.2bn) as a condition for the bailout." WTF ?!!!

"JPMorgan Chase engaged in massive, systematic fraud to foreclose without cause or due process on innocent homeowners, tossing thousands of families into the streets.

"Goldman Sachs profited by marketing an investment package that was designed to fail, collecting fat fees on each sale to unsuspecting investors who lost millions, while the bank also collected millions more from a side bet it made that, sure enough, its package would be a loser.

"For years, HSBC has been butt deep in a swamp of despicable, illegal money-laundering schemes, willingly processing billions of dirty dollars for vicious drug cartels and peddlers of arms to terrorist forces at war with America.

"Many more examples abound. These are not poor saps desperately robbing a branch bank for a few hundred dollars, but criminal enterprises run by multimillionaire Wall Streeters who run in the finest social circles, are celebrated by the media and hobnob with the nation's political elite.

"Their corruption is complete; their crimes are documented. Yet, unlike sad-sack bank robbers, none of these Robbing Bankers have even been prosecuted, much less jailed. In fact, as revealed on PBS's "Frontline" program earlier this year, frustrated prosecutors who served in the Justice Department's criminal division two years ago report that "when it came to Wall Street, there were no investigations going on. There were no subpoenas, no document reviews, no wiretaps."

I listened to that NPR audio link. It was magnificent and well worth the less than half hour or so spent listening. I have forwarded it extensively as it was very educational and I really recommend your link to everyone on this forum and to anyone who believes that - de omnibus dubitandum - 'Everything Must Be Questioned'!

''The Occupy Movement was formed largely in response to the same event as the Tea Party: the federal government’s bailout of Wall Street. The Occupy Movement understands that a government that is responsive to the people is the best security against unchecked corporate power and corporate greed. The Occupy Movement is properly concerned with the corporate corruption of democracy.

''However, Occupy is equally opposed to both major parties, and has been hesitant to directly influence the legislative process. The Tea Party elects people to Congress, while the Occupy Movement embraces non-violent direct action. The question that must be asked is whether or not the Occupy Movement will begin to apply more direct pressure on the political process itself, on promoting specific pieces of legislation.

''Occupy has been motivated by two fundamental principles: 1) corporations are not people, and 2) money is not speech. Occupy must decide whether or not it wants to see those principles materialized in legislation. Doing so would be one of the most profound, constructive, and promising changes in our political system.''

I excerpt the above from your excellent link and encourage all readers to engage with your link :

'What does it take to make a Wall Street banker squirm with shame? Not content with having swindled tens of millions of Americans out of their homes and life savings, the very bankers who caused the biggest economic catastrophe since the Great Depression are now subverting government regulations designed to prevent comparable disasters in the future.'

'Top of the list of those responsible are the hustlers at Citigroup, once the world’s largest financial conglomerate, and a leading practitioner of the sordid behavior that caused the housing meltdown. Indeed, Citigroup was allowed to form as a merger of the investment banking of Travelers and the federal insured commercial banking of Citicorp only because lobbyists for those institutions successfully engineered the reversal of the Depression-era Glass-Steagall law that had banned such combinations.'

''Alan Greenspan had no excuse for assuming fraud out of existence, and his exceptionally immoral position on fraud and regulation proved catastrophic to America and much of the world. We cannot afford the price, measured in many trillions of dollars, over 10 million jobs, and endless suffering, of unethical economists.''

Thanx for the excellent link and excerpt 'A4C' & Never Give Up Occupying Solidarity !!!

Note 'the mortgage meltdown of 2008, when the entire housing industry went into freefall. Central to this crisis is the story of the liar's loan -- mortgage-industry slang for a mortgage that a lender gives without checking tax returns, employment history, or anything else that might reliably indicate that the borrower can make the payments.

'The Fed, and only the Fed, had authority under the Home Ownership and Equity Protection Act (HOEPA) to ban liar’s loans by all lenders. At a series of hearings mandated by Congress, dozens of witnesses representing home mortgage borrowers and state and local criminal investigators urged the Fed to do this. The testimony included a study that found a 90 percent incidence of fraud in liar’s loans.

From power grabs like the Monsanto Protection Act, to people fighting back in Connecticut by passing the first genetically engineered foods labeling law, the news has been full of stories about GE (or GMO) foods. Last night, even the Colbert Report talked about GE wheat! While not all of the news is good, the fact that it's being shared is a very good thing, because it means people are listening.

First, there was the farmer in Oregon who discovered GE wheat growing in his field, where it never should have been, because GE wheat has never been approved for use! We still don't know how it got there, or how widespread it might be.

Then, there's GE salmon. We've known for a long time that GE salmon could breed with wild salmon if it ever escaped, spreading its engineered genes and decimating native populations. Now, a Canadian study has found that GE salmon can also breed with brown trout, an entirely different species of fish, and that their hybrid offspring can out-compete native species. With GE salmon on the verge of potential approval by the FDA, this news is alarming: if approved, GE salmon could wreak havoc on our environment.

New GE products are being considered for approval every day. Soon, a GE potato could find its way into McDonalds fries (more news on that soon). To make matters worse, Congress's last budget bill included the so-called "Monsanto Protection Act" which lets biotech companies keep selling GE seeds even while lawsuits are challenging the approval of those products.

But it's not all bad news. Across the country, Food & Water Watch is fighting alongside our partners and concerned citizens like you to require labels on GE foods, so we can all know what's in the food we're eating. Just this week, we celebrated as Connecticut became the first state to pass a GE labeling law! But the law won't go into effect unless other states pass GE labeling laws. So now we're redoubling our efforts in other states, from Maine to Illinois and beyond, and at the same time we're pushing for a federal law to require GE labeling nationwide.

We can't stop GE foods without your help. We need more field organizers on the ground educating the public about the risks of GE foods. We need more independent research like our recent corporate profile on Monsanto. We need more citizens urging their lawmakers to do the right thing and stand up to Monsanto. And we're counting on your support.

Food & Water Watch is a consumer advocacy nonprofit that challenges the corporate control of our food and water. We empower people to take action and transform the public consciousness about what we eat and drink.

In days, governments will discuss whether to plug a gigantic $1 trillion per year corporate tax loophole - enough money to end poverty, put every child in school, and double green investment! Most governments want powerful multinationals to pay these taxes, but the US and Canada are on the fence. To get a deal, we need them to feel the pressure.

$1 trillion is more than every country combined spends on their military. It's bigger than the budgets of 176 nations. It's $1000 each for every family on the planet. And believe it or not, it's the amount that our largest corporations and wealthiest individuals evade each year in taxes.

This should be a no-brainer. To massively boost our public finances in a time of painful cuts and debt, all we need to do is ensure that everyone pays the taxes they're supposed to. But big US corporations are fiercely lobbying to protect their dodgy practices. A massive public campaign will help identify and hold accountable the two leaders - President Obama and Prime Minister Harper, who are considering siding with corruption over this gigantic step forward for the planet. Let's get to one million voices and then Avaaz will deliver our call to leaders and the media in the middle of the negotiations:

Apple, one of the world's wealthiest companies, paid basically $0 in tax on $78 billion they made in recent years by setting up shell corporations in low-tax countries and posting profits abroad. This kind of global tax evasion gives multinational firms a huge advantage over smaller domestic companies. It's as bad for a healthy market economy as it is for democracy and economic stability.

But in days, governments will consider a plan that would make it harder for companies and individuals to evade taxes by hiding their money offshore and in tax shelters. The plan would require countries to share information to expose where the money is hidden and require "fake" companies to reveal who's really behind them. If talks go well this week, the G8 could agree to the whole thing later this month.

In hard times, when governments everywhere are cutting spending on vital social priorities, it's particularly galling that the wealthiest get a free pass from paying their fair share. (Even more so when the hard times were caused by massive government handouts to bailout banks owned by the same people). Governments are finally getting serious about plugging these holes in our finances, but the US and Canada are falling sway to powerful business lobbies.

A large public petition that's well covered by the media will help highlight which countries are blocking the agreement, and make this a political issue for Obama and Harper to deal with. A powerful call from the world's people to choose to give a massive boost to our planet instead of preserving corrupt loopholes will also help these leaders to find their consciences and good sense. We can't let the lobbyists win this one in the shadows, let's bring the spotlight of public attention to this massive decision for our planet:

Every week, our community strives in and often wins fights for human rights, democracy, conservation and more. But some decisions have the power to affect thousands of causes at once, often preventing many problems from ever happening. $1 trillion per year in public funding would make a massive difference in the lives of children who could go to school, lives that could be saved, peace that could be built, habitats that could be protected, and so much more. For the sake of all these future struggles that we might not need to fight, let's win this one.

Thanx for a sad & funny link ! Is this what things have come to in The U$A ?!! I'm glad for Franken's efforts - he should have been a comedian !!! Here's someone else who tries to speak truth to power ... so The DemoCrap Party made sure it ousted him :

Twenty - five years and my life is still
Trying to get up that great big hill of hope
For a destination
And I realized quickly when I knew I should
That the world was made up of this brotherhood of man
For whatever that means
And so I cry sometimes
When I'm lying in bed
Just to get it all out
What's in my head
And I am feeling a little peculiar
And so I wake in the morning
And I step outside
And I take a deep breath and I get real high
And I scream at the top of my lungs
What's going on?
And I say, hey hey hey hey
I said hey, what's going on?
Ooh, ooh ooh
And I try, oh my god do I try
I try all the time, in this institution
And I pray, oh my god do I pray
I pray every single day
For a revolution
And so I cry sometimes
When I'm lying in bed
Just to get it all out
What's in my head
And I am feeling a little peculiar
And so I wake in the morning
And I step outside
And I take a deep breath and I get real high
And I scream at the top of my lungs
What's going on?
And I say, hey hey hey hey
I said hey, what's going on?
Twenty - five years and my life is still
Trying to get up that great big hill of hope
For a destination

Mother,mother everybody thinks we're wrong
Oh, but who are they to judge us
Simply because our hair is long
Oh, you know we've got to find a way
To bring some understanding here today
Oh

Picket lines and picket signs
Don't punish me with brutality
Talk to me
So you can see
What's going on
Ya, what's going on
Tell me what's going on
I'll tell you what's going on - Uh
Right on baby
Right on baby

Re. Howard Zinn's book - I can't recommend it to you highly enough as it is The Definitive read on the matter & should be a set text for all US youth, imo. Thanx for the links and lyrics below. Solidarity :-)

This land is your land, this land is my land,
From California, to the New York Island,
From the Redwood Forest, to the Gulf Stream Waters,
This land was made for you and me.
I roamed and rambled, and I followed my footsteps
To the sparkling sands of her diamond deserts
And all around me a voice was singing
This land was made for you and me!
This land is your land, this land is my land,
From California, to the New York Island,
From the Redwood Forest, to the Gulf Stream Waters,
This land was made for you and me.
As I went walking that ribbon of highway
I saw above me that endless skyway
I saw below me those golden valleys
This land was made for you and me!
This land is your land, this land is my land,
From California, to the New York Island,
From the Redwood Forest, to the Gulf Stream Waters,
This land was made for you and me.
As the sun was shining, and I was strolling,
And the wheat fields waving, and the dust clouds rolling,
As the fog was lifting, a voice was saying
"This land was made for you and me!"
This land is your land, this land is my land,
From California, to the New York Island,
From the Redwood Forest, to the Gulf Stream Waters,
This land was made for you and me.

Where have all the flowers gone, long time passing?
Where have all the flowers gone, long time ago?
Where have all the flowers gone?
Young girls have picked them everyone.
Oh, when will they ever learn?
Oh, when will they ever learn?
Where have all the young girls gone, long time passing?
Where have all the young girls gone, long time ago?
Where have all the young girls gone?
Gone for husbands everyone.
Oh, when will they ever learn?
Oh, when will they ever learn?
Where have all the husbands gone, long time passing?
Where have all the husbands gone, long time ago?
Where have all the husbands gone?
Gone for soldiers everyone
Oh, when will they ever learn?
Oh, when will they ever learn?
Where have all the soldiers gone, long time passing?
Where have all the soldiers gone, long time ago?
Where have all the soldiers gone?
Gone to graveyards, everyone.
Oh, when will they ever learn?
Oh, when will they ever learn?
Where have all the graveyards gone, long time passing?
Where have all the graveyards gone, long time ago?
Where have all the graveyards gone?
Gone to flowers, everyone.
Oh, when will they ever learn?
Oh, when will they ever learn?
Where have all the flowers gone, long time passing?
Where have all the flowers gone, long time ago?
Where have all the flowers gone?
Young girls have picked them everyone.
Oh, when will they ever learn?
Oh, when will they ever learn?

Smiling faces sometimes pretend to be your friend
Smiling faces show no traces of the evil that lurks within
Smiling faces, smiling faces sometimes
They don't tell the truth uh
Smiling faces, smiling faces
Tell lies and I got proof
The truth is in the eyes
Cause the eyes don't lie, amen

I'm telling you beware, beware of the handshake
That hides the snake
Listen to me now, beware
Beware of that pat on the back
It just might hold you back
Smiling faces, smiling faces sometimes
They don't tell the truth
Smiling faces, smiling faces
Tell lies and I got proof
Your enemy won't do you no harm
Cause you'll know where he's coming from
Don't let the handshake and the smile fool ya
Take my advice I'm only try' to school ya

Hello darkness my old friend,
I've come to talk with you again
Because a vision softly creeping
left it's seeds while I was sleeping
And the vision that was planted in my brain
still remains, within the sounds of silence

In restless dreams I walked alone,
narrow streets of cobblestone
'neath the halo of a streetlamp
I turned my collar to the cold and damp
when my eyes were stabbed by the flash of a neon light
split the night... and touched the sound of silence

And in the naked light I saw
ten thousand people maybe more
people talking without speaking
people hearing without listening
people writing songs that voices never share
noone dare, disturb the sound of silence

Fools said I you do not know,
silence like a cancer grows,
hear my words that I might teach you
take my arms that I might reach you
but my words, like silent raindrops fell...
and echoed the will of silence

And the people bowed and prayed,
to the neon god they made
And the sign flashed out its warning
in the words that it was forming
And the sign said, "The words of the prophets
are written on the subway walls, and tenement halls
and whisper the sounds of silence.

If I had a hammer,
I'd hammer in the morning
I'd hammer in the evening,
All over this land
I'd hammer out danger,
I'd hammer out a warning,
I'd hammer out love between my brothers and my sisters,
All over this land.
If I had a bell,
I'd ring it in the morning,
I'd ring it in the evening,
All over this land
I'd ring out danger,
I'd ring out a warning
I'd ring out love between my brothers and my sisters,
All over this land.
If I had a song,
I'd sing it in the morning,
I'd sing it in the evening,
All over this land
I'd sing out danger,
I'd sing out a warning
I'd sing out love between my brothers and my sisters,
All over this land.
Well I got a hammer,
And I got a bell,
And I got a song to sing, all over this land.
It's the hammer of Justice,
It's the bell of Freedom,
It's the song about Love between my brothers and my sisters,
All over this land.
It's the hammer of Justice,
It's the bell of Freedom,
It's the song about Love between my brothers and my sisters,
All over this land.

Wow, true in 2 realms of discussion. "Humankind's greatest crisis coincides with the rise of an ideology that makes it impossible to address."

If we do not really know exactly why this crisis is occurring, the notion that it is perpetuated unconsciously should logically be entertained. However, science, despite their unconscious mind :-), 86% of their mental existence at the very least, refuses to look at the possibility.

Consider the unconscious performance of dissociation.

People are forgetting each day that they are participating in the destruction of their atmosphere.

The APA will not discuss this phenomena or any method to counter it. Making it impossible to address.

'Mother Nature' has locked away VAST amounts of Ancient Carbon in the form of peat, coal, oil and gas. We know that there is a Carbon Cycle just as there is a Water Cycle, but that the time scale of the Carbon Cycle (which includes Geological processes) is much, much longer than in the case of water (simplified here to : evaporation, condensation, precipitation & run off).

Therefore, how can we as a sentient species, consider that we can bypass the Carbon Cycle and extract huge amounts of carbon based fuels, burn them and almost instantly (in geological time) return this carbon to the atmosphere Without There Being Any Repercussions ?! What is our individual and collective intuition on this matter ?!! That Carbon Dioxide even tho' it is essential to life via photo-synthesis, is also a 'Greenhouse Gas' is undeniable. The Greenhouse Effect is well understood and without it life on this planet would not exist. We owe our previously relatively stable climate to this and the level of CO2 has been pretty stable at ~ 300ppm (0.03%) for a very, very long time (verifiable from ice and lake sediment cores). However, that proportion has risen in the last 40 years to ~390ppm (0.039%) which is a 30% increase in CO2 levels.

Further, both water vapour and methane are also greenhouse gases and the level of both will also rise with rising global temperatures. This is termed 'positive feedback'. A Human Influenced and possible 'run away' Greenhouse Effect is empirically, scientifically and mathematically possible, so the question is do we accept or 'believe' that it is happening ?

As Dr. Moench says in the article :"Our nation's responses to the climate crisis, the federal deficit, our economic stagnation and many of our other serious challenges are still being held hostage by people who manifest a detachment from reality as profound as that of schizophrenics. We are still allowing a powerful elite, who behave like psychopaths, to steer our government towards protecting their interests at the expense of everyone else. The greatest threat to the United States will never be Al Qaeda, Russia, China or Iran. It will be our failure to wrest control of public policy from the inmates of our own insane asylum." Thanx for your links and also please consider :

Parenti has a quality perspective. I left a comment there with some links to what media corporations do to peoples efforts to share the facts about HOW Americans can cease to be used in this environmental destruction.

A Native American friend said that he thought, "the leaders of corporate America were aliens". I agreed and gave my reasoning.

I recommend the above and of course the last link, for obvious reasons. Thanx A4C for that interesting link, which starts with : "While world leaders were wrapping up the United Nations conference on climate change (COP 18) in Doha, Qatar this past weekend with the annual vague promise to tackle the enormous crises brought on by extreme weather and global warming, a delegation of youth gathered far from the high-level conference halls to say “no” to advocacy without action."

I know you have kids A4C so realise better than most what we struggle for & just what is at stake here.

Simply fantastic links :) Thank you for the great articles and book and in the spirit of sharing, I offer - http://www.nationofchange.org/right-s-sham-religion-rugged-individualism-1355328952 - That is such an excellent last link you provide. Everyone should read 'A People's History Of The United States' and with your excellent link, they can, lol. Never Give Up Learning From History! (so we can) Occupy The Future!

Remember the 35 children who died in Gaza this month from Israeli bombardments.

Remember the 168 children who have been killed by US drone attacks in Pakistan since 2006.

Remember the 231 children killed in Afghanistan in the first 6 months of this year.

Remember the 400 other children in the US under the age of 15 who die from gunshot wounds each year.

Remember the 921 children killed by US air strikes against insurgents in Iraq.

Remember the 1,770 US children who die each year from child abuse and maltreatment.

Remember the 16,000 children who die each day around the world from hunger.

These tragedies must end.

~

veritas vos liberabit ...

~

{Bill Quigley is Associate Director of the Center for Constitutional Rights and a law professor at Loyola University New Orleans. He volunteers with the Institute for Justice and Democracy in Haiti (IJDH) and the Bureau de Avocats Internationaux (BAI) in Port au Prince. Contact Bill at quigley77@gmail.com}

'Scientists do not disagree about human-caused global warming. It is the ruling paradigm of climate science, in the same way that plate tectonics is the ruling paradigm of geology. We know that continents move. We know that the earth is warming and that human emissions of greenhouse gases are the primary cause. These are known facts about which virtually all publishing scientists agree.' from - http://www.nationofchange.org/why-climate-deniers-have-no-scientific-credibility-one-pie-chart-1354370613 & thanks for the link. Occupy The Future For The Sake Of Our Kids! Never Give Up!

Clearly all of this represents a human behavioral problem. Curiously, in the midst of that, you could find an American teenager with a smart phone that thinks human beings are really advanced.

Really, the hand wringing is using lots of human calories. I suggest that we use the mind instead, since that is where behavior originates, and choose the most effective possible action that we can lawfully join together in doing.

BTW, my clicking on a + twinkle makes a greater - number. I new this voting thing was going to be abused, but this is downright babylonian.

"But the self-hating state cannot act. Captured by interests that democracy is supposed to restrain, it can only sit on the road, ears pricked and whiskers twitching, as the truck thunders towards it."

We have a government that has NO MANDATE right now. Change must come, as that is unsustainable!

''It is encouraging to see that the majority of voting Greek dares to vote for a change from the relentless misery imposed by the infamous troika – ECB, EC and IMF. The Greek people have entrusted you with the delicate task of pulling Greece out of the morass, where she has been put – totally unjustified – by this notorious troika.

''(Y)our Government has been tricked into believing that Greece’s debt is unsurmountable and could pull Europe into an abyss. Instead your country is being looted by Wall Street and their European allied too-big-to-fail banksters. Of course, with the connivance of your neoliberal predecessors, some of whom have been associated with one of the biggest Wall Street gangsters, Goldman Sachs. Indeed, the President of the European Central Bank has also been associated with this criminal financial institution. In other words, the EU financial system today is run by the extended arm of Goldman Sachs – and its Washington masters.

''Hence, the artificial Greek crisis morphed into a manufactured European crisis. The media hype allowed it, as nobody asked, why? – Why a crisis when the European economy was so much stronger than that of the US; was then and still is today. It was and is backed by a solid economy.

''The real purpose behind this fake European economic calamity was the weak dollar at the time. It risked to be replaced by the euro as chief reserve currency – which would have jeopardized the dollar’s world hegemony.

''... Forget globalization. It has killed many economies around the world and hundreds of thousands of people. You may then renegotiate the Greek debt under YOUR terms. Greece has the background for a solid economy with her biggest asset – a wonderful and well educated people.

''Perhaps equally important, you will open a gate for other European countries in distress to follow your example. You may evoke a new solidarity among nations. That’s what Brussels is most afraid of. If that happens their house of cards may collapse – and with it possibly the entire dollar dominated western casino scheme.''

The 1% of The 1% are NOT superhuman giants - they can & will be removed from power over us via the exposure of the 'charade of money'. How bloody that process wil be or otherwise will depend on them. Also fyi :

Money is like inches and ounces ... an abstract, arbitrary, yet commonly accepted metric for measuring 'wealth' - but it is NOT 'wealth' per se & Banks create money with computer keystrokes & with that 'loan' to a Debtor become Creditors demanding Compounded Interest !!!

Furthermore, consider what Albert Einstein said : ''Compound Interest is The Eighth Wonder of the world. He who understands it, earns it ; he who doesn't, pays it'' !!

Finally to quote what the simply excellent new Greek Finance Minister, Yanis Veroufakis - said in the Greek Parliament - ''At some point someone has to say 'NO' & that role has fallen to little Greece" and we all must get that their struggle is ours & Solidarity @ Greece !

Consider closely what Iceland did & what The Venal Banksters do NOT want us to know or remember :

"Messrs. Varoufakis and Tsipras are riding on a wave of support at home, where a recent poll showed eight in 10 Greeks approve of their government’s negotiation stance. That makes it less likely that it will cave in to pressure to seek an extension of the existing bailout."

These standards will create cleaner, healthier air for all Americans, preventing thousands of deaths every year. At the same time, they will provide billions of dollars in public health benefits annually.

It's a common-sense, win-win solution that will slash smog-forming pollution at a level comparable to taking 33 million of today's cars off the roads.

We have 34,824 Americans standing with us in support of these standards—but we still need you. Become #34,825, and help us reach our goal.

Section 1. Artificial Entities Such as Corporations Do Not Have Constitutional Rights
The rights protected by the Constitution of the United States are the rights of natural persons only. Artificial entities established by the laws of any State, the United States, or any foreign state shall have no rights under this Constitution and are subject to regulation by the People, through Federal, State, or local law. The privileges of artificial entities shall be determined by the People, through Federal, State, or local law, and shall not be construed to be inherent or inalienable.

Section 2.Money is Not Free Speech
Federal, State, and local government shall regulate, limit, or prohibit contributions and expenditures, including a candidate's own contributions and expenditures, to ensure that all citizens, regardless of their economic status, have access to the political process, and that no person gains, as a result of their money, substantially more access or ability to influence in any way the election of any candidate for public office or any ballot measure. Federal, State, and local government shall require that any permissible contributions and expenditures be publicly disclosed. The judiciary shall not construe the spending of money to influence elections to be speech under the First Amendment.

This responds to hundreds of local & state resolutions and Move To Amend for a “We the People” Amendment - The movement for constitutional reforms that would end “corporate rule”.
The Amendment clearly and unequivocally states that:
Rights recognized under the Constitution belong to human beings only, and not to government-created artificial legal entities – including corporations, unions, and parties.
and
that Political campaign spending is not a form of speech protected under the First Amendment.
Government belongs to the people & must not be for sale to the corporations and the wealthy and the 1% special interests. The Move To Amend coalition of nearly 260,000 people and hundreds of organizations has helped to pass nearly 500 resolutions in municipalities and local governments across the country calling on the state and federal governments to adopt this amendment. This bill is specifically different from the other proposals that have come forward in response to Citizens United because it also specifically addresses corporate personhhod. In every single community where Americans have had the opportunity to call for a Constitutional amendment to outlaw corporate personhood, they have voted to end “CP”.
The Citizens United decision is not the cause, it is a symptom.
We must remove big money and special interests from the legal and political process entirely with this amendment.